MPs Support Death Sentence For Defilers

By Felix OsikeSOME members of Parliament are pushing for a mandatory death sentence on men who defile girls under the age of 18 years.The MPs on the legal and parliamentary committee yesterday met officials from the Law Development Centre, who presented their views on the, “Law Revision (Fines in Criminal Matters) Bill 2001. The Bill seeks to provide for revision of fines in criminal matters.Hope Mwesigye (Kabale) and Dorah Byamukama (Mwenge South) argued that such a sentence would be a deterrent. “Defilement by a person who has the HIV virus is tantamount to a lethal injection to the under-age girls. There should be a mandatory death sentence for such people,” Byamukama said.Although section 123 of the Penal Code Act says a person guilty of an offence of defilement is liable to suffer death, it grants courts the discretionary powers to decide on the matter.Those who met the committee were James Mawano, Augustine Twesigire, Maureen Owor and Michael Akampurira.The lawyers recommended to the committee chaired by Fred Ruhindi (Nakawa) that all specific laws that provide for fines be reviewed on individual basis. They called for the review of fines on adultery and other laws, but warned against unrealistically high fines like in the Traffic and Road Safety Act, which have become impossible to implement.If passed into law, those found guilty of adultery could pay a minimum of sh300, 000 up from the current sh600. Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri) said a distinction should be made between, “domestic” and “criminal” adultery.He defined domestic adultery as an affair between a married man and unmarried woman while criminal adultery involves married people.The lawyers also proposed that other than paying fines in court, victims of criminal offences like robbery and embezzlement should also be compensated.Ends